


Alternative Solutions

by Sidders



Category: Lovecraft Country (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Fix-It, My attempt at fixing that mess of a finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:34:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27127277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sidders/pseuds/Sidders
Summary: “I’m just trying to find a solution to all of this where no one gets hurt.”
Relationships: Christina Braithwhite/Ruby Baptiste, Ruby Baptiste/Christina Braithwhite
Comments: 45
Kudos: 206





	Alternative Solutions

**Author's Note:**

> This one's for you Shannon, from this weirdo right here 😘

“Leti wants me to turn on you.”

Christina’s eyes have barely adjusted to the low light of the basement when Ruby speaks. She’s standing by the table, both hands resting on the metal surface either side of the small vial of Christina’s blood.

“I gathered as much.”

Ruby turns her head just enough to look at her. “She thinks that if they have a piece of you, they can bind your magic.”

“I see.” Christina folds her arms over her chest and takes a few steps closer, keeping her expression carefully blank. “So this was - what? You seducing me to distract me?” She grabs for the vial and holds it up between them. “You thought you’d fuck me to sleep and steal my blood?”

“Don’t,” Ruby snatches the vial from Christina’s hand. She stares at it for a long moment, her shoulders sagging and her face softening, and places it back on the table. “Don’t.”

She looks tired, Christina thinks. As tired as Christina feels now that the adrenaline from catching Ruby in the act is starting to wear off. When she saw Ruby eyeing the vial, when she woke up to an empty bed, she was expecting a confrontation, something considerably more aggressive. She’d almost prefer that to this.

“I have never used you like she is using you right now,” Christina says eventually, hating the way her voice cracks.

“I’m just trying to find a solution to all of this where no one gets hurt.”

“Except for me?” Christina challenges. Ruby shakes her head.

“Why’d you think I was still here?” She asks and Christina’s mask slips, just a little, just enough for her curiosity to show. “I’ve been down here for a minute. I could’ve been on my way out by now.”

“Then why-”

“I told you,” Ruby interrupts her, reaching for Christina’s hand. It’s only the second time that Ruby has been the one to initiate contact while Christina is in her own skin, and Christina can only stare at their joined hands. “I’m trying to find a way that we all make it out of this unharmed. Including you.”

“I had one,” Christina says, mostly to herself, but the silence from Ruby makes her meet her questioning gaze and continue. “A solution. The Book of Names.”

“What about it?”

“They have it.” Ruby nods, waits for her to continue. “I’m guessing that your sister didn’t mention that I went to see them after we saw Titus.”

Ruby frowns. “No. And neither did you.”

“I knew you’d want to come with me.”

“Of course I would have.”

“And I didn’t think that seeing us together would help anyone’s mood.” Ruby opens her mouth, possibly to argue, only to remember the last time Leti had been in the same room as the both of them. “It didn’t work anyway. I told them that, if they gave me the book, I’d find another way. Atticus would remain unharmed, I’d leave them all alone. Atticus refused.”

“That’s because Atticus is a goddamn idiot,” Ruby mutters and Christina has to bite back a smirk.

“I can’t argue with that.”

Ruby breathes out a quick laugh and shakes her head, her expression quickly growing serious again. “We’re going to see them in the morning.” Christina frowns. “They didn’t listen to you. They’re damn well gonna listen to me.”

“And if they don’t?” Christina asks, cautious. 

“They will,” is all Ruby says before dropping Christina’s hand and heading for the stairs. She only stops when she realises that she isn’t being followed. “You coming?”

“Where are you going?”

“Back to bed,” she answers, as if it’s that simple.

“You still want to…?” Christina trails off. She knows that the insecurity she tries so hard to hide is all over her face when Ruby gives her a look full of sympathy.

“I came down here to think,” Ruby walks back over to her, stopping a short distance away. “Not to plot against you.” She grabs the belt of Christina’s robe then, using it to tug her closer, a quiet gasp escaping Christina’s lips. “And I don’t make a habit of sleeping with people I don’t want to sleep with.”

“No?” It’s so easy for her to believe that it had all been a trick, just a way of keeping her distracted while they all plot against her. 

Ruby kisses her in place of an answer.

Christina’s hands instinctively lift to cup her jaw, thumbs brushing over her cheeks, and she gives a pleased little hum when Ruby’s hands squeeze her hips.

“No,” Ruby says, pulling away just enough to speak, their noses bumping. “Now come back to bed.”

…

Hippolyta answers the door and Ruby counts her blessings because she thinks that she might be the only one smart enough to actually listen to what they have to say.

“We have a proposition,” Ruby says and Hippolyta’s eyes immediately flick to Christina where she’s leaning against the hood of her car (William’s car, technically, with the Bentley still looking like an absolute wreck).

“She tried that already.”

“Well now I’m trying,” Ruby insists. She doesn’t miss the way the corner of Hippolyta’s mouth twitches as she turns and heads back into the house. 

Christina still can’t enter the house and that results in what must look like a particularly odd meeting with Ruby and Christina standing just outside, Atticus, Leti and Hippolyta crowded into the doorway and Montrose and Dee trying to look like they’re not peeking through the window to the right of the house.

“I never wanted to hurt any of you,” Christina begins and, all at once, Tic frowns, Leti mutters something under her breath that they can’t quite make out, and Dee and Montrose yell “bullshit!” from indoors. Christina’s jaw clenches but she lets them finish before she says more. “I meant it when I said that it was nothing personal. But,” She adds before anyone can interrupt, Leti’s mouth already half open, “I realise that that isn’t an excuse. That’s why I asked for the book.”

“You’re even crazier than we thought if you actually think we’d just give it to you,” Leti scoffs.

Ruby cuts in then, spotting the pleading look Christina gives her out of the corner of her eye, putting a calming hand on Christina’s shoulder that everyone’s eyes seem to be drawn to. “Which is why we’ve come up with a different solution.”

“Which is?” Tic eyes them both warily.

“Let her look at the book.”

“What?”

“You can supervise,” Christina continues for her. “Let me look through the book, find the spell that I need, and then I’m gone. The book is yours to do with as you wish and you never have to see me again.”

“And if we refuse?” Leti asks, directing the question to Ruby.

“Then you never see me again.”

“Ruby-”

“No,” Ruby shakes her head. “You told me that family isn’t an obligation and you’re right about that. I’m not obligated to help you. I’m not obligated to be used by you.”

“She’s the one using you!” 

“And yet I never asked her to sneak around your house to steal something from you.”

Tic turns to Leti at that. “I told you to leave her out of this.”

“Funny how we communicate better than you seem to,” Christina comments, closing her mouth and looking at the floor when Ruby shoots her a look.

“It doesn’t have to be today,” Ruby says, reverting to their actual conversation. “It doesn’t even have to be this year if you don’t want it to be. But at some point you’re going to let Christina find the spell she needs, and only that spell.”

They all stand in silence for a moment, thinking things over. It’s Hippolyta that speaks first, turning to Christina. “What if you can’t find what you’re looking for?”

“The Book of Names contains more than I could even comprehend. But, on the slim chance that I don’t find it,” she pauses and swallows, briefly looking rather like she’s swallowed a razor blade. “Then I stop.” The identical look of surprise on their faces would be funny under different circumstances, and there’s a crash from inside the house. 

“Why should we believe you?”

“I give you my word,” Christina says. Then, realising that her word means very little to them, continues. “I meant it when I said that I never wanted to hurt any of you. And recent… events,” her eyes briefly flick to Ruby, then back to the others, “have made me realise that this might not be worth losing people over.”

“We’re gonna need a minute,” Tic says once he’s stopped staring at Christina like she’s sprouted an extra head. The three of them retreat further into the house, closing the door behind them, and all that can be heard is almost comically loud whispering.

“That looked like it hurt,” Ruby comments, nudging Christina’s hip with her own.

“It did,” Christina nods, clenches her fists to stop the tremble she can feel in her hands - be it from nerves, restrained anger or something else entirely, she isn’t sure. The whispering turns to outright yelling for a moment and Christina gives Ruby a sideways look. “Think they’ll go for it?”

The door opens before Ruby can answer and, once again, it’s Hippolyta. They can hear what sounds like Montrose shouting at Tic and Leti from somewhere inside the house and Hippolyta steps outside, closing the door to muffle the sound. 

“It won’t be right away,” she says, looking between the two of them. “There’s a lot that needs to be worked out here - between all of us.” 

“But you’ll do it?” Ruby asks, hopeful.

Hippolyta just nods. A moment later the door flies open and Montrose marches straight past them, muttering angrily to himself all the way down the street. “Some of us are more willing to find a peaceful solution to this than others.”

**Author's Note:**

> It is 1am, I'm tired, I'm still angry about that finale, but this is finally done. I hope you guys like my take on how the episode could have gone!


End file.
